In the history of race relations and law enforcement in the United States, April 2017 will surely be regarded as the month the tide turned. First came the woking of Kendall Jenner, a Pepsi advert that began as a sort of soda spiritual, but ended up showing us that we had the answers to this little problem all along. Now comes news of a would-be landmark documentary focusing on the relationship between African-American communities and the police. “You have to find out what’s the real struggle,” Audience Network boss Chris Long declared this week when he announced the project, “and that’s part of getting the story to be authentic.” The other part is that it’s going to be made by Vince Vaughn.

I know! AT LAST. If you are one of those people who felt the issue was being held back by the lack of hilariously overpromoted white actors attempting to give it the full 360, the news could not come soon enough. Vince’s Wild West Picture Show Productions has been working on the project for a year, according to Long, with the only sadness that the Swingers star will not direct, although he is apparently going to be very hands-on as a producer. As Long puts it: “I said to him, ‘Listen, [if I were you] I would embed. Hoop Dreams was a five-year embedment.” Why do I get the feeling that Hoop Dreams is his only other documentary reference point with This Sort of Race Stuff?

Having assessed what we might call “churn” in Vince’s IMDb entry, Lost in Showbiz judges that he certainly has the flexibility in his schedule for a five-year embed – but over to him. “The concept is really to humanise people on both sides,” Vince explained to a Hollywood Radio & Television Society event this week. Luckily, he seems to have contacts in both camps, albeit in the suspiciously vague sort of way one gets with actors. “I’ve had friends who’ve grown up in that environment, I’ve also had friends who are police officers, and there’s a lot of fear on both sides.” Hmm. I suspect we are moving toward a pointed corrective that ALL lives matter.

Either way, with that kind of Rolodex, Vince is uniquely placed to bring this anguished story of our times to … I’m sorry, I honestly haven’t the will to finish the sentence. Perhaps later.

In the meantime, it feels right to point out that the documentary could serve as an unofficial companion piece to Vince’s other current project: a recently announced buddy-cop movie about police brutality in which he co-stars with Mr Mel Gibson. Set your sights on adventure! Time was when movies about necessarily violent cops who don’t play by the rules were standard, uncomplicated fare, but the concept has rather fallen out of vogue of late. Who can possibly say why.

Still, Dragged Across Concrete sees dear old Mel bumped out of the volatile younger cop role that he once made his own. He will instead play the old-timer to Vaughn’s rookie, with the plot centring on two officers whose brutal tactics are filmed by a civilian, with the video becoming a cause celebre. I wonder whether the victim will be black, or if Hollywood will cleave to its rich tradition of pussying out of 90% of the major debates of any given age. Either way, it will be great to see Mel back on patrol, in an exploration of law enforcement that critics will call his finest since the performance beside the Malibu roadside, when he called the lady cop “sugar tits” and explained that the Jews were responsible for all the wars in the world.

Actor-wise, it is undoubtedly an intriguing partnership. Vince is famously a libertarian; he endorsed both Ron and Rand Paul, considering his relationship with Ron Paul a serious friendship. He believes there aren’t nearly enough guns in the US, previously declaring: “We don’t have the right to bear arms because of burglars; we have the right to bear arms to resist the supreme power of a corrupt and abusive government.” There should be guns in all schools, Vince has also explained, reasoning – is that the word? – that “banning guns is like banning forks in an attempt to stop people getting fat”. You can see what might have drawn him to Mel; after all, there really is no more nuanced study of the possibilities of armed law enforcement in an era of small government than Mad Max.

For his part, Mel seems to be forming quite the creative association with Vince. At a time when other directors seem less keen to bite, he gave him a role in Hacksaw Ridge, and the pair were seen sitting next to each other at the Golden Globes, where they both stared stonily through Meryl Streep’s speech about Trump’s bullying. If anyone has the artistic courage to invigorate the buddy-cop genre in the era of Black Lives Matter, it is surely this double act, and we must look forward to the announcement that shooting has begun.